>> google national association of free health care clinics to donate, www.freeclinics.us. i encourage your listeners to do readings on this. these are phenomenal people. >> ed schultz, thank you for joining us, you're doing great work down there. >> good to be with you. >> see more on "the ed show" later tonight, 10:00 p.m. eastern, 7:00 pacific, if you want to donate, go to www.freeclinics.us. you can have the last word online at our word, follow my tweets @lawrence. "the rachel maddow show" is up next, and tonight in rachel's chair is melissa harris-perry, good evening, melissa. hi, lawrence, it's so good to see you back. >> hey, thanks for sitting in for me last week, that was great.

>> absolutely. thanks to you at home for staying with us for the next hour. rachel does have the night off and i'm melissa harris-perry. so what did you do this weekend? if you live in the eastern u.s., chance is your weekend revolved around irene, it did cause enormous damage from north carolina all the way up to canada, at least 37 people were killed by the massive storm, and the high winds knocked down as many trees that around five million americans are without power, but it's what the storm did after it left the atlantic coast and went inland that took many by surprise. the land lock state of vermont got walloped by irene, which was a tropical storm by the time it got there, so high winds weren't the problem, rain was the problem. today, vermont is dealing with its worst flooding since 1927, flooding that has killed at least two people, and because of

all that rain, the vermont state capitol was almost flooded twice this weekend, first when irene slammed through the town and again when officials were wondering whether to release water to release the pressure. the state of connecticut is also reeling tonight, not a single town in the nutmeg state was spared by the storm. there are power outages throughout the state, nearly half of all residents are in the dark tonight. too early to know how much it will cost to fix everything damaged from north carolina to new england, but in new jersey, governor christie said his state alone may have suffered tens of billions of dollars in damage. the state of maryland said the federal government will reimburse the state for 75% of what it spends on emergency preparedness in response to irene, and in new york, the cost of the storm to the state would

be high but offset by federal disaster relief. after all, that's what happens in the wake of a disaster, right? that's why barack obama has been going to fema and meeting with the secretary of homeland security and signing all of those emergency declarations for state after state after state. part of what the government exists to do is to respond to disasters like hurricane irene, to help citizens get back on their feet after a devastating storm, but out on the campaign trail, candidates for president have been suggesting something else. >> i don't know how much god has to do to get the attention of the politicians. we've had an earthquake, we've had a hurricane. he said are you going to start listening to me here, listen to the american people. >> congresswoman bachmann said later she was just joking, nothing funnier than a deadly hurricane. she meant it humorously and added that the national debt

poses a threat to relief efforts. another presidential candidate believes he can leverage big savings really, really easily. congressman ron paul believes since we used to do without fema, we can just do without it again. he cited as an example the hurricane that struck his district in the year 1900 in galveston, texas. quoting him, "we should be like 1900, 1940, 1950, 1960. i live on the gulf coast and we deal with hurricanes all the time." i know somewhere between 6,000 and 12,000 people died in the galveston hurricane. so many bodies, people couldn't bury them all. barrels of free whisky were handed out to dull the horror of the burnings. that seemed to be the extent the government could respond, dull your pain with free liquor. sorry, we can't do more. now, the majority leader of

congress right now isn't suggesting we get rid of fema, instead, eric cantor has been requiring spending cuts be made somewhere else to pay for a disaster, and he's been very consistent about this. after the tornado in joplin, missouri, this spring, the disaster funding to deal with that was taken from the emergency department's budget. sorry, that money's got to come from somewhere, which means when fema needed money now, right now, to respond to hurricane irene, it had to take money intended for the joplin recovery and spend it on irene. rebuilding will have to wait. you are yesterday's disaster. in just over four months, americans will begin voting for who they think america's next president should be. someone who runs a government that exists as a reflection of god's wrath or will it be a governing body with the desire

and the means to help pick up the pieces and rebuild when disaster strikes? joining us now from burlington, vermont, is bernie sanders from vermont, thank you so much for your time tonight. >> my pleasure. >> some of the worst pictures, some that just really had my jaw dropping were taken just down the road from where you are right now in burlington from waterbury, vermont. can you give us an assessment of what's happening on the ground there in situations like the one you are currently in? >> actually, i was just in waterbury a few hours ago. what we are looking for, melissa, three people are known to be dead and we fear another life has been lost. hundreds of roads has been closed, amtrak has been shut down, tens of thousands of people are without electricity. we are seeing severe damage to

many businesses and homes through the the state, mostly in the southern part of the state, so what we're seeing today is the state of vermont experiencing the worst natural disaster that we have experienced since 1927. at end of the day, we're going to be spending to rebuild the damage and go forward from here, it's hard to estimate, but certainly tens and tens and tens of millions of dollars if not hundreds of millions of dollars. >> senator sanders, when we hear something like that, you know, none of us want to politicize this, this is a disaster at its core. it doesn't require a political analysis, per se, but i do want to ask here about the role of the government in alleviating that kind of suffering. we may not be able to solve it, but the fact is as we're having conversations about the appropriate role of government, certainly it makes sense for a first line responder to be local, but is there a role here for the federal government to

play? >> of course. of course, there is. in any democratic civilized -- even non-democratic nations, if you are a nation, it means to say that in our case, if there's a hurricane in louisiana, the people of vermont are there for them. if there's a tornado in the midwest, we are there for them. if there's something in the east coast, the people in california are there for us. that is the concept of a nation. you can't do everything alone. we work together, and when disaster strikes, as one people, we come together to help our neighbors out. >> there is something about disaster that creates a sense of shared vulnerability. i'm here in new orleans, and we certainly, you know, yesterday were spending a lot of time thinking about what was happening to our fellow citizens on the east coast, so to the extent we are all one people, once congress reconvenes, do you think problems getting our body,

the federal government, to pass the kind of funding bill necessary to assist with irene? >> well, i surely hope not. you know, in the past as a nation, we have come together. we've got to do it now, and we have got to do it in the future, but as you've indicated in your opening statement, there are some people out there who have a very strange idea of what a nation is about, and they do not believe, i gather, that the federal government should play a role in helping communities rebuild after some terrible disaster has occurred, after people have lost their lives, after businesses have gone under. these are the same people who believe, in some cases, the federal government should not play any role in providing health care to our people or protecting the environment. i think, melissa, this is very much of a fringe concept. i think the overwhelming majority of the american people know that we have got to stand

together, that we're going to grow together, that we're going to survive together, and that if we start splintering, we're not going to succeed in a highly competitive international economy. so yes, there are some voices out there that think, i guess, that the federal government should not respond to a disaster, there are voices in congress, but i think they represent a very small minority of the american people. >> senator sanders, our hearts and our thoughts are with the people of vermont tonight, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> so what was president obama up to on vacation last week in martha's vineyard, you know, golfing, light reading, managing two different disaster response efforts, overseeing the end of libya's 40-year dictatorship and the worst economic recession since the 1930s. the usual stuff. the president's latest move on the jobs crisis is next. ♪♪ [ male announcer ] sitting. waiting. hoping.

that's a recipe for failed investing. open an e-trade account and open doors, seize opportunities, take action with some of the most powerful yet easy-to-use trading tools on the planet all built to help you maximize the potential of every dollar you invest. successful investing isn't done by throwing ideas against the wall and hoping. it's done by lowering your costs and raising your expectations by using unbiased research and powerful screeners to build a diversified portfolio with stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and every etf sold. and we'll help you every step of the way. with 5-star research and free education covering everything from the basics to advanced investing strategies. start now and we'll give you up to $500 and let you trade free for 60 days. visit our website, call us, open an account. e-trade. investing unleashed.

oh, oh, oh, oh, did you hear what former vice president dick cheney said about former secretary of state colin powell? colin powell did. stay tuned to see who maintained dignity and who didn't even try. [ female announcer ] instantly smooth wrinkles with a shot? wait a second... with olay challenge that. new regenerist wrinkle revolution... relaxes the look of wrinkles instantly, and the look of deep wrinkles in 14 days. ready, set, smooth... regenerist. from olay.

in the aftermath of hurricane irene, the word of the day is "recovery." recovery from the hundred-plus miles per hour wind that knocked down trees, ripped off roofs, and tore down power lines. more than five million are still without power in east coast states. flooding, storm surge, swollen

rivers and states, there are still towns and cities underwater from rain up to a foot of rain in some places. recovery from the almost complete grinding standstill. transportation infrastructure and systems need to get back up and running so things and people can get moving again. recovery from hurricane irene will cost billions of dollars, but it will get done, it can be done. we know how to get the power lines back up and the roads cleared. less certain is the other recovery, the big picture recovery, capital "r," capitol "e," recovery. i am, of course, speaking of economic recovery and what the heck the government can do about it. the people in charge are these guys, the members of congress and the house and the senate, oh, yes, and this man, president obama. or to be more specific,

president obama and his advisors. one of the most important and impressive advisor positions in the white house is the chairman of the council of economic advisors, that title has a lot of words in it, so you know it's important. until recently, the guy that had that job was the gloriously named austan goolsbee, in his last appearance with john stewart, goolsbee was living in pleasure. >> he's the outgoing chairman of the council of economic advisors, please welcome austan goolsbee. >> look at you, can we get a shot of his face. you are giddy. you are giddy. >> i will admit to some enjoyment i'm getting out of town. once you get to washington, there's only so long you can go.

there are a number of people there whose tray tables are not in the full and upright position. i feel bad the president has to stay there for years to come. >> look at you. you are, i swear to got, you are giddy as a schoolgirl. >> we're the salmon, you know, i'm jumping out of the lake, i'm headed home. >> austan goolsbee has been on "the daily show" four times before this. he's never looked so down right slap happy. it's as though he had the world's most thankless job, except, perhaps, for being president. a job so bad he's leaving the halls of power in washington for an unassuming teaching job in chicago, and he could not be happier about it. look at him. he's thrilled, delighted. this whole chairman of the council of economic advisors thing must be a real slog, and today at the white house, president obama announced his

latest victim -- i mean, his latest pick to head up the economic advisory council, allen kruger, former assistant treasury secretary and professor at princeton where i used to work. come to think of it, i used to work at the university of chicago too. joining us now, ezra klein, columnist for "the washington post" and bloomberg news. nice to see you tonight. >> nice to see you, melissa. >> you say allen kruger is the obvious pick for the president, what makes him so obvious? >> it is the entire history of how the president picks these economic positions, so the thing about allen kruger, he's a labor economist, a guy who studies the job market and he's good at it, one of the best labor economists in the country. he's breathed a lot of new life in the field when it fell a few years ago, but allen kruger is

also a long time clinton and obama administration appointee, he served with geithner, summers, all these guys for a long time, so if you look at the way the obama administration has been picking for these positions, goolsbee following roemer, daly following emmanuel, people they know, they pick from inside the administration. when you look for an economist who's a good economist but knew these guys and served there before, that was allen kruger, so the downside of that is you have another economist in there who is part of the administration team who thinks like they do, so if you wanted this to be a pick to broaden the horizons, you didn't get that. >> it's not someone who's going to broaden horizons, but more than that, the other similarity i see between kruger and president obama, this empirical, hypothesis testing, is this guy too much of a thinker, a professorial type?

>> if you have a political guy in the council of economic advisors position, you made a mistake. it's thankless for guys like goolsbee, that position is to give good, rigorous, empirical advice to the president. do you want a big thinker, that is not kruger. do you want a smaller thinker, someone good at thinking about how do you design a particular program, that might be kruger, but to get a guy to pass things through congress, there are enough political people in washington already. >> speaking of trying to get things passed through congress, it turns out the republicans in congress have been holding up the president's nominees, and this is, after all, just a no, what is going to happen politically on this question. will kruger have bipartisan support or will this by a night in the senate?

>> points will be scored. kruger will get past the senate, traditionally the council of economic advisors chair does not get held up because he doesn't have a lot of power. he advises the president and the senate tends to give the president more leeway on a pick like that. but obviously the nominations process is incredibly broken and the situation is incredibly polarized right now, so if i were allen kruger, i would not be looking forward to my hearings. >> sure, and normally things like the debt ceiling are routine. speaking of the question of whether or not the administration is going in a new direction, president obama will be making a new jobs pitch next week, anything about the kruger no, magnamination that makes you think something particular is going to happen in terms of the

pitch? so i don't think kruger is telling us that much about it. we're going to be hearing versions of ideas we've heard before. this administration is not one for picking big symbolic battles on policies they can't win on, they've also been careful on not getting polarized by bringing them up. so i expect things we've heard before or similar policies to those. >> ezra, you and i talked about at one point about having a politics and economics 101 class, maybe this is our professor on that. msnbc analyst and columnist for "the washington post" and bloomberg news, thanks for joining me tonight, ezra. >> thank you. republican presidential frontrunner rick perry has doubled down against one of the

most popular and successful social programs in the history of the world. social security and the extreme right wing just don't get along.

let's say, just for argument's sake, that you don't know everything there is to know about rick perry. let's just say you haven't read his new book, "fed up!" from start to finish. let's just say you're a regular,

reasonable person and you hear rick perry, frontrunner in the republican presidential primary say this about social security. >> we need to have a conversation with america just like we're having here today and admit that it is a ponzi scheme for these young people. it is, i mean, the idea that they are working and paying into social security today and they are under the current program that it's going to be there for them is a lie. it is a monstrous lie on this generation, and we can't do that to them. >> if you're not paying really close attention, if you're a casual listener on the campaign trail, sounds like governor perry is saying social security, yes, is a ponzi scheme, a monstrous lie to this generation, and therefore, he seems to be implying we need to fix it, make it solvent so it will be around for these young people.

>> it is a monstrous lie on this generation, and we can't do that to them. >> we can't do that to them. if you're listening to rick perry talk about social security on the campaign trail, you might hear his criticism of the program as indicative of his interest in actually strengthening it. it sounds like he wants to fix social security. in fact, in his book, governor perry argues that certain new deal programs "massively altered the relationship between americans and their government, violently tossing aside any respect for our founding principles of federalism and limited government. by far the best example of this is social security." rick perry does not want to save social security for the younger generation. the monstrous lie is not social security, it is more likely the monstrously misleading idea is that rick perry would like to protect america's most important social safety net for the next generation. the truth, rick perry is

perfectly happy to have the next generation go into retirement and old age without a safety net of any kind. he said in an interview, "i don't think our founding fathers were thinking about a federal program of pensions, nor a federal program of health care." so the goal in rick perry's america would be what, to save from the wages so many americans don't have because they don't have jobs, invest those non-existent wages in private accounts on the stock market that crashes every other week? leave it up to the stakes to have entitlements or not, to have a social safety net or not? it's hard to say, because rick perry hasn't seemed terribly anxious to discuss his plans for social security out on the campaign trail. why? maybe he thinks if he says it's in big trouble, it's a lie, it's a ponzi scheme, that all those

anxious voters will assume, as he's implied, that he wants to fix it, so when rick perry says social security is in trouble, he doesn't mean he wants to fix it, he means he wants to get rid of it. in that case, what does rick perry mean when he said he balanced the budget in texas or created all those new jobs? i'm actually interested in this, so joining us now is someone who can crack the rick perry code, if you will. lou dubose, editor of "the washington spectator." lou, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you for having me, melissa. so crack the code. >> first thing i want to ask you -- exactly. the first rick perryism i want you to decode is the texas budget. rick perry likes to talk about how he, as governor, simply made tough choices, he balanced the budget. now, you have a piece out on

this this week dealing with the $27 billion shortfall in texas, so help me decode this texas budget. what's really going on here? >> well, for one, you know, he's required by the constitution to balance the budget. they can't deficit spend in texas as in most states, because the constitution prohibits it. the budget was balanced -- we faced at the beginning of this legislative session a brutal budget that just ended, a $27 billion shortfall. the interesting thing about that shortfall was it was created by the governor in 2006 when he passed a business margins tax. he appointed a committee, pushed it through the legislature, and the cynical thing was that $27 billion he knew, or at least was well-informed, that it would not -- there would be a $27 billion hole because his tax was going to underperform. by 2011, it did underperform by $27 billion. it didn't in 2009 because rick

perry took $17 billion in stimulus, a program to which he objected. he took it and used it to fill the budget hole, so essentially the governor has created a structural budget deficit $10 to $20 billion depending how the budget performs. he told two legislatures, he told the lieutenant governor the tax would not deliver. the controller told him, the state controller told him, the tax would be $23 billion short. she missed by $4 billion because she didn't account for the recession, so he went into the session knowing we were short. >> well, indeed, and speaking of citizens, not only did he take stimulus money to fill the

budget hole while railing against the stimulus, as he's talking about america's future and the future of young people, where were exactly the sorts of government spending things that he did cut in the texas budget as he keeps making this claim to have balanced this budget without raising new revenue? >> listen, that's always an easy choice in texas. you go after public education and medicaid, funding formulas. that's $5.7 billion, you're next door in louisiana, you see firsthand that these are exponential cuts in states such as ours. now we have 12,000 teachers laid off in this session, but it's going to come back in the next session. medicaid's cut and the last four months of medicaid weren't funded. we're short going into the next session two years from now. it's grim.

>> medicaid, education, lou dubose, editor of "the washington spectator," thanks for helping us crack what that perry code actually is. for those who served in george w. bush admission, here's a phrase sure to strike terror in the stoutest of hearts. dick cheney has written a memoir. e.j. dionne joins us for that next.

in your view, we should still be using enhanced interrogation? >> yes. >> should we still be waterboarding terror suspects? >> i would strongly support using it again if we had a high-valued detainee and that was the only way to get him to talk. >> people call it torture, you think it should still be a tool? >> yes. >> rendition? >> yes. >> secret presence? >> yes. >> wiretapping? >> with the right approval. >> you say it is one of the things you are proudest of and you'd do it again in a heart beat. >> it was controversial at the time, it was the right thing to do. >> no apologies? >> no apologies. >> ladies and gentlemen, the unapologetic 46th vice president of the united states, richard bruce cheney, who's currently

promoting his memoir and promising there will be "heads ek exploding all over washington." why? because his memoir throws a bunch of his fellow bush veterans under the bus. one who promised the intelligence of wmds in iraq was a slam dunk, cheney criticized him. then my favorite, condoleezza rice's apology after president bush wrongly stated iraq tried to buy uranium. rice learned she had made a mistake and came into my office, sat down in the chair next to my desk and tearfully admitted i had been right. then colin powell, cheney says he pushed for his resignation in 2004 and it was as though he thought the proper way to

express his views was by criticizing administration policy to people outside the government. secretary powell's response to his former colleague. >> mr. cheney's had a long and distinguished career and i hope in his book that's what he'll focus on, not these cheap shots he's taking at me and other members of the administration who served to the best of our ability. >> you label them flatly as cheap shots. >> yes, they are cheap shots. several he targeted at me, president bush and i always agreed i'd leave at the end of 2004. he says that i went out of my way not to present my positions to the president but to take them outside of the administering. that's nonsense. the president knows what i told him about every issue of the day. >> in some ways he's no kinder to your successor, condoleezza rice. >> he's taking the same shots at conde and taking the same shots

at george tenant and in some ways indicating he didn't always approve of what president bush was deciding, and there's nothing wrong with saying you disagree, but it's not necessary to take these barbs and pump a book up by saying heads will be exploding. that's on the headline section of the nixon foundation to sell the book. i think it's a bit too far. i think dick overshot the runway with that kind of comment. >> that it would be colin powell, a veteran of foreign wars, a hero of the first gulf war, a patriot who served under both democrats and republicans, a man because of his bipartisan appeal and because of his commitment to duty, was chosen as the sales person of the iraq

war on behalf of the bush administration, that it would be colin powell to be thrown under the bus by vice president dick cheney, it would be colin powell who is thrown under the bus whose one of those people whose war he helped to sell, not just nasty and ugly but tacky and really bad manners. here to talk more about this is e.j. dionne, "the washington post" columnist, senior fellow at the brookings institute and msnbc contributor. good to see you tonight. >> good to see you again. >> i wonder where there's still so much ranker here from former vice president. why come out attacking members of his own administration? >> well, i think you do get a picture of quite a bit of dysfunction inside the bush administration, and i think that cheney felt that in the second term the policy was getting away

from him. i think that you really saw a shift in president bush's foreign policy from something like the cheney policy to something like condoleezza rice's policy, and that's where there are certain continuities between the second half of bush and president obama, and i don't think cheney likes that. there were, however, some interesting revelations in this book, i thought, even if colin powell is right in saying that heads aren't exploding in washington. i think that's the toughest shot. the way you sell a book is to get people to believe heads are exploding. but the account of the last meeting before iraq is really striking, because president bush said it ended with his deciding and he says let's go. cheney says that bush threw everybody out of the room and said dick, what do you think we ought to do. i always thought there was something odd about some of these heroic accounts of president bush's decision

making. this is one of the toughest critiques ever. >> look, i do think there's a way in which clearly vice president cheney is trying to position himself here as, you know, the center of this story, but i wonder why do it at the expense of the party. we've been ringing our hands about how we can't get bipartisanship in the u.s., but right now it feels like is there something this cheney memoir should be telling us about the republican party itself coming apart at the seams? >> i think it tells you why all of these republican presidential candidates are not embracing the bush record. rick perry has gone out of his way to say he's a different kind of texan, he's texas a&m, not yale. and as i was hearing dick cheney talk, i thought his theme song is "no, i regret nothing,"

except he'd never sing it in french, i don't think. >> i don't want to hear him sing it. e.j. dionne, thanks for joining me tonight. >> good to be with you. i'm not the only one broadcasting from new orleans tonight. ed schultz is also here, and he'll have the latest on his tremendous efforts to support free health clinics, and i'm happy to say one of ed's guests later on tonight will be me, that's right after the show. and here, up next, a look at what rachel's been working on so hard for the last three months. if you've recently signed up for medicare or will soon, you're starting a whole new journey. and, like many people, you're probably wondering, where do i go from here? consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. call now for a free information kit

and guide to medicare to get started. basically, medicare only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. a medicare supplement insurance plan helps cover some of those expenses. and that can save you up to thousands of dollars a year in out-of-pocket costs. plus, you can keep any doctor who accepts medicare patients. together with medicare, an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan could be the kind of coverage you're looking for. in fact, it could make a world of difference. call now for your free medicare guide and information kit about aarp medicare supplement insurance plans, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company.

a special preview of the upcoming msnbc documentary "day of destruction, decade of war" is next. stay with us.

since the death of osama bin laden back in may, the cia has been busy, busy combing through bin laden's files that navy s.e.a.l.s scooped up on the way out looking for names, numbers, locations, any clues to lead them to al qaeda leadership. this weekend we learned those efforts paid off in a big way. this man, al rahman, described

as al qaeda's top operational planner and one of the only remaining figures in al qaeda's leadership who could serve as both an ideological guide and the operational leader. that was until u.s. officials say he was killed last week by a cia drone strike in pakistani tribal region dealing al qaeda another major blow. nearly ten years since 9/11, u.s. officials are now sounding cautiously optimistic that a strategic defeat of al qaeda could be near. for most of the past year rachel has been working with nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel about not 9/11 itself, but the decade after, how 9/11 has changed the country, what we've done and what we've done different now because of it. here now is a short clip from the piece, take a look.

>> the combination of cia units, u.s. special forces, afghan militias, and american air strikes is devastating. the taliban start to run and abandon al qaeda. >> you know, all the taliban november, 2001, kabul falls, just two months after 9/11. girls are free to go to school. the repressive regime that hosted bin laden is defeated. a month later, even kandahar, the taliban's hometown, is overthrown. >> kandahar, that was the last urban stronghold of the taliban and al qaeda, less than 90 days after 9/11, there were only 410 americans on the ground in afghanistan. about 110 cia and approximately 300 special forces.

>> reporter: 400 americans. >> right. >> reporter: on the ground, and they toppled the government of the taliban. >> well, 400 americans that were in partnership with our afghan allies. and that was really the key. >> reporter: the cost to america to drive out the taliban? less than $1 billion, and one u.s. cia officer killed. relatively speaking, it was a very cheap and low-risk victory. what happened after that? >> well, i believe that we as a nation and as a global community failed to secure that victory. >> reporter: the quick victory in afghanistan wasn't secured in large part because of pakistan, and its porous border. al qaeda and the taliban crossed over and established a new sanctuary next to afghanistan. and then, in what has been

called an even greater strategic mistake, the united states found a new mission, a new war in iraq. al qaeda felt it was given a second chance. >> we never felt that america would invade iraq. we never thought that the american will do that, you know, and get involved in that war. >> reporter: was iraq a gift to al qaeda? >> yeah, of course. yeah, is gift. >> reporter: a gift, because iraq would inexpire a new generation of al qaeda fighters. >> that's part of a two-part series that airs starting this thursday night, september 1st at 9:00 p.m. day of destruction, decade of war. we hope you'll watch. we'll be right back.

i'm hosting tonight's show

from new orleans. but be here tonight wasn't really the plan. i'm here because hurricane irene made it impossible to fly to new york, like i was supposed to. but my unfortunate predicament is strangely apropos, because while hurricane irene has shut down the east coast, tonight is also the sixth anniversary of hurricane katrina, devastating this city, that i love and where i live. sixth anniversaries are not usually all that notable. while we are preparing as a nation to mark ten years since the attacks of september 11th, the sixth anniversary of the levee breach is less likely to make news. but my vantage point here in new orleans on this anniversary, while also looking ahead to september 11th, allows me to ponder the lessons we americans have learned and the ones we have not, from our two biggest calamities in recent history. hurricane katrina, like september 11th, 2001, was a rare moment, when we as americans suffered along with our fellow citizens, even as tragedy struck.

we watched in horror as the towers came down. four years later, we sat in shock as water poured into the lower ninth ward. the terror of 9/11 was followed by a deep sense of connection, with each other. a sense of solidarity as americans and a recognition of our shared vulnerability. in fact, it made us afraid. and that fear did make us band together, but it also is true that our unified desire to respond to 9/11 helped us to make some disastrous choices. out of fear, we stood and allowed the erosion of america's civil liberties. out of our fear, we followed a misguided president into a war with iraq. fear of terrorism made us afraid to criticize the troubling choices of the bush administration. until, four years later, another crisis reminded us that the politics of fear are not an

effective or adequate response to our shared vulnerability. on august 29th, 2007, hurricane katrina toppled the levees that protect new orleans. killed more than 1,500 people. destroyed nearly 100,000 homes. displaced more than 1 million gulf coast residents. and crippled the mississippi gulf coast and southeastern louisiana. of we watched as americans were abandoned on the rooftops of their homes, and we realized that our system could not even get water to the people of a major american city for days. and this too reminded us that we are all vulnerable. not only to the danger of foreign enemies, but to the neglect of our own public institutions. the lessons of katrina were critical lessons. katrina exposed the consequences of our aging and inadequate infrastructure. the floodwaters also revealed the long-standing racial and economic differences that made

an entire population vulnerable to disaster. and how long did those lessons last? did our priorities as a nation change in any profound way? whatever momentum our renewed sense of responsibility brought has been halted by this recession. right now, even as the wealth gap between white americans and americans of color widens, the argument in washington is over how much of the social safety net we must cut, while not raising taxes on the rich right now, even as the president reminds us time and again that we need to spend on fixing our crumbling infrastructure, he's being met with opposition from republicans who say we can't afford it. right now, as we try to prevent more disasters that are made worse by environmental degradation like the erosion of our coastal wetlands, republicans want to gut the epa. it's clear that in response to hurricane irene, we have learned a better way to prepare for short-term disasters.